


A Safer Method

by JQ (musicmillennia)



Series: Smol Dragon Barry 'verse [14]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Dragon Hybrids, Dragons, Flight lessons, Fluff, Gen, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 00:25:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6776803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicmillennia/pseuds/JQ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jax chooses a handler, but he's not an experienced one. Len's brought in to help the young dragon learn how to fly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Safer Method

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlueStar1937](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueStar1937/gifts).



> I didn't find a name for Jax's mother, so I made up my own. If she DOES have a name, please tell me so I can switch them out :D  
> EDIT: GOT IT thank
> 
> Also, WELCOME BACK CONSTANCE

Last night, Len fell asleep with his wings draped around Barry. He wakes with two tusks shoved in his face.

Must be Thursday.

"Hello, Mick," he drawls, feeling around for his shirt, "Up before noon? Congratulations."

"Jax has a handler."

Len halts. Barry stretches with a tiny, full-body yawn, saying, "That's good. Jax deserves a good handler."

Mick gripes, "It's  _Stein_."

That gives Barry pause. "...oh. Well. Stein's a good guy. He's an expert on Fire Elements too!" he adds with sudden enthusiasm.

Len smooths out his shirt. Ray and Cisco worked on his clothes; they mold and breathe around his wings. With a roll of his shoulders, he grabs his jacket.

"Barry," he's saying, "intelligence and 'being a good guy' don't make a good handler. Stein's never raised a dragon before."

"Clarissa would've been better," Mick growls, "but he  _insisted_ on Stein."

Len asks, "Where's Caitlin?"

"He didn't want her either!" Mick snaps, clearly not understanding why Jax wouldn't want his rider to handle him, "Lenny, he's not gonna teach Jax anything right. You gotta do something about it."

"Alright, Mick. You can mope later." Mick glares. "Are they registering with Carter now?"

"Already did." Of course they did. Mick has awful timing. "Jax is having breakfast. I made sure he got a pig instead of the  _fowl_ Stein tried to give him." he preens a little at that.

Len pats his gargantuan neck on his way out, flatly telling him, "Well done. Let's go talk to the old man."

Barry prances at his heels. They take to the air together.

For a split second, Len forgets about Jax and Stein. Flying is amazing, but he quickly learned that flying with his dragon beats it all. Barry crees his agreement.

"Focus, you assholes!" Mick barks.

* * *

Stein watches Len's landing with barely concealed relief. As soon as Len touches the ground, he's pulled into a vigorous handshake.

"Handler Snart!" Stein cries, "Good morning to you!"

"Yeah," Len says, holding out the vowels. "So what's this I hear of Jax choosing you as a handler?"

Stein looks at Jax, who's now the size of a barrel. He's a chubby young thing, wings strong and muscled after their recent growth spurt. Some think he's going to grow into a bipedal dragon with the way he sits, hunched over the remains of his pig and gobbling the rest from his paws like a human toddler.

"Yes," Stein says, "I want to assure you that I did nothing to encourage this. All I did was answer his questions on Fire Elements. He was very eager to learn. Two weeks ago, he even assisted me with a simple experiment."

There's honest affection in him, that much Len can see. It's a start, but.

"You'll have to listen to his parents," Len says, "they'll help you raise him."

"Sorry,  _they_?"

Len nods behind him. Stein turns, and there's Jax waddling to Mick with excited jumps. Mick hums a happy greeting, licking the blood and stray meat from him.

"Mick adopted him from the shell, Professor," Len says, "he'll be watching you as closely as Jax's dam."

Stein swallows. "I don't suppose you have any advice?"

Len just smirks and brushes past him. "Barry!" he calls, "Get your breakfast!"

Barry cheers.

* * *

" _SNART!_ "

Ugh.

Sara groans, "Come on, I wanted morning sex!"

Mick shoves his eye against Len's window. With a grunt, Len pushes himself up and slides it open.

"What do you want, Mick?" he snaps, because damn it, he could've lived with morning sex too.

Mick's eye pushes into the room, a bulbous half-sphere that's swirling with telltale fire. "Stein's trying to  _explain_ the 'anatomy of flight'! Like that's gonna teach Jax  _shit_!"

Sara drapes herself over Len's back, using him as a kickstand. She had a rough night before barging into Len's quarters. "Lots of handlers've done that, Mick."

The walls give an ominous groan as Mick squeezes closer. "Not with  _diagrams_."

Sara starts awake. "...oh."

Len sneers, "Come again?"

* * *

Some people have natural inclination towards handling. Others require a little more training, but that doesn't mean they're any less proficient. Stein, however, seems to be immune to both.

Barry lands on Jax's head, legs draping around him as he settles on his stomach. From afar, it looks like Jax is wearing a red and yellow hat with thick, drooping strings.

"Hi Jax!" Barry chirps.

"'Sup, Barry?" Jax chirps back. He waves his tiny forelegs when Mick lands. "Hey, Mick! Gray's teachin' me how flying works!"

"Oh darling," Lisa coos, having carried Sara here, "this won't teach you how to stay in the air."

Jax squawks with an indignant flail, knocking Barry off as quickly as Barry had landed on his head. The smaller dragon retreats to his handler's shoulders.

Stein stares Len down. "Will you offer that advice now, Mr. Snart?"

That sly geezer.

Len smirks, "Alright, Stein. Mick," he calls, "mind if I help Jax to fly?"

Mick, who has submitted to Jax climbing all over his head, immediately snaps, "You ain't throwing him off a cliff, Snart!"

Len rolls his eyes. "Fine. Plan B."

* * *

Before executing Plan B, Len goes to Jax's dam to clear it with her. None of his other dragons had parents around—that is, parents he thinks will have productive opinions—so he's never had to do this.

Beverly Jackson is one of the most venerable dragons in the fort, recently reaching 1,095. Kendra is over 4,000 years old, but even she gladly bows her head to her. When it was told that she had another egg, everyone was both amazed and excited, as she's only allowed four other sires to give her eggs, the last of which was her mate. Jax's three half-siblings went down in history as the greatest dragons on the battlefield, dying honorable, courageous deaths.

She has a dome pavilion of sparkling marble pillars that rests on a large flat spot on one of the mountains surrounding the fort. Her golden brown scales echo across the field when the sun hits her right. Len and Barry fly there, lingering at the edge of the stone walkway.

Beverly is taking tea with her own dam, Constance Bridgforth. Constance is a biped of emerald green scales and long, vein-like gold stripes and a gold underbelly, with ochre brown paws. She has a curly feathered ruff and tail, both laced with dark gray. Her honey brown eyes are shared by her daughter.

Beverly herself is sapphire blue with ochre stripes and paws. She's not a biped, sitting regally on her haunches and left foreleg, sipping tea with her right from a large china saucer. Having recently recovered from her illness, her own feathered ruff and brown face look grayer, more tired, but she shows no other trace. Her spiked tail is clearly inherited by Jax.

The dragons' conversation fades at Len and Barry's approach. They incline their heads in acknowledgement when their visitors bow.

Len can't deny he's a little nervous. He also can't deny that even thinking of throwing Jax off a cliff was a stupid move. As for Barry, he's a bundle of nerves, trying in vain to stop his scales from sparking.

"Leonard Snart," Beverly's easy accent greets jovially, "I hope you're helping poor Martin. If my son insists on being handled, I'd rather he be taught things correctly."

"That's what I'm here to talk to you about, ma'am," Len replies politely, hands clasped over his stomach, "I want to request that I teach Jefferson how to fly."

Beverly tilts her head. Constance's eyes narrow. The latter snaps, "I _hope_ you're not tellin' us you're gonna throw that baby off a cliff."

"No ma'am," Len hastily assures, "since I have wings of my own now..." he tells them Plan B.

They consider him and Barry until Barry curls a little bit behind Len's leg.

Beverly coos, "Don't worry, baby boy. We're just making your handler nervous so he knows he has to do this correctly."

Constance sips her tea, "Leonard usually does things correctly—aside from spending more time with his lovely sister instead of spending his nights bedding her rider. But that's none of _my_ business."

Len clears his throat. "Yes, ma'am."

Beverly nudges her dam with a low chuckle of, " _Mama_ ," before turning back to Len and saying, "Alright, Leonard. You have my permission for your plan. We'll be watching Jax's progress from here."

Len repeats, "Yes, ma'am. Thank you."

"As for you, baby," Beverly smiles as Barry, "would you like to stay for tea?"

Barry starts. He peeks up at Len, who nods. Timidly, he approaches the tea table, scrambling onto Constance's large paw when offered so he can sit by a spare saucer that's easily twice as big as him.

"Make sure you let Mick and my son know they're invited too," Beverly tells Len.

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

"Okay, Jax," Len says, strapping on the toughest pair of gloves he owns, made fingerless because of his talons, "here's how this is gonna go: I'll lift you into the air, hold onto you until you start flapping your wings. Mick will be underneath to catch you in case you need a few tries. Alright?"

"What about Gray?" Jax says.

Mick grunts, "I guess he can ride with me," while glowering with Stein.

Len rolls his eyes. "We need to get Caitlin. Is she in her lab? Barry can—" oh wait. "I'll get her."

Mick growls, " _I'll_ get her."

He returns visibly calmer, though still disgruntled, with Caitlin waving to Jax from his back. Stein's let up behind her.

Jax takes a deep breath and shakes himself out. "Okay," he says, crouching low to the ground, "Bring it on!"

Len allows his dragon half take over as much as he can afford. This gives him enough strength to lift Jax into the air. Mick takes off once he's reached a good altitude.

Jax has ridden on Mick before, but without the familiar body surrounding him, he squirms a little in Len's arms.

Mick growls in reassurance below him. "Your wings, kid!"

"Right," Jax mutters, "wings. Okay. Use the wings."

At first, his makes little twitches in short spurts. He looks up at Len's wings after a minute, and his movements progress to cautious half-flaps.

"You can do it, Jax!" Caitlin yells up to him. She nudges Stein.

Stein promptly cups his hands around his mouth and calls, "I believe in you, Jefferson!"

At his encouragement, Jax makes a pleased trill. His wings start working harder. When they make powerful gusts of wind, Len asks if he's ready for him to let go.

"Yeah!" Jax cries, clenching his front paws, "Let's do this!"

Len releases him, fanning out so he's picked up by another air current. Jax squeaks in surprise and nearly stops. Mick tenses, ready to shoot up—but he doesn't need to, because Jax flies down to him with a delighted cree.

"I'm doin' it, Mick!" he cheers, "I'm flying! Gray, I'm flying!"

The joining cheers come not just from Mick, Stein, and Caitlin, but from the entire fort.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
